


The Warren way

by BertoMiccio



Category: High School Story (Visual Novel)
Genre: Coming Out, Divorce, Eating Disorders, Emotional Hurt, Emotional/Psychological Abuse, Gen, Multi, Physical Abuse
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-13
Updated: 2020-04-13
Packaged: 2021-03-02 05:14:28
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,253
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23639656
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/BertoMiccio/pseuds/BertoMiccio
Summary: Max and Mia Warren are feared individuals. Unshakeable, and hard, like steel. But no one is born made of steel, if anything, you get embroiled in it.
Relationships: Max Warren & Mia Warren
Comments: 11
Kudos: 8





	The Warren way

**Author's Note:**

> I love the Warren siblings! I wanted to do something that explored them further. 
> 
> I hope you like it!

Max and Mia don't cry. Like at all, ever. 

The one time Max cried, he was just seven. He had a nasty fall while riding a bicycle. While his tears rolled down his cheeks, he saw his father walking his way. Max, in his child-like naivety, thought he came to hold him, and tell him everything was okay. 

"Daddy I've got blood in my knee ple-" His request was interrupted by his father's palm crushing on his face with a sharp noise.

"Don't cry, Maxwell. Suck up the pain." He said, hiding his impertinent fury behind that distant, icy demenour of his. 

"But... it hurts a lot Daddy." Max said, calmer now, whipping his tears away so his Dad didn't have to see them anymore. 

"It doesn't matter. You're a Warren. Us Warrens don't cry. Did I made myself clear?" 

"Yes... yes Dad." 

Mia, who was nearby playing with her dolls in the grass, watched the scene. 

That night, she visited her older brother in his bedroom. As she had thought, he was still awake, looking at himself in front of his big mirror.

"Max, you okay?" She asked, almost as a whisper.

"Come here Mia." He said, still looking at his own reflection. 

"What are you doing?" His sister asks, now standing beside him. 

"Practicing _The Face._ " He explained. 

"The Face? What face?" 

"It's something Mommy showed me, today, after Daddy reprimanded me in our gardens." He then proceded to make his face expression as blank as possible, except for a slight, almost inexistent smirk, Mona Lisa-like. 

"See?" Max asks. 

"See what?" Mia asks, now irritated. 

"My face, dummy! Mommy says that if we make that face, no one is gonna know what we're thinking." 

"Seriously? That's... cool!" The little girl said, her face suddenly lighting up. They both practiced _The Face_ for a while, helping each other do it. 

_A Warren doesn't cry._

It was late in the afternoon. Mia had just entered the living room, dressed with her freshman cheerleader outfit. She saw her parents and Max sitting in their large, white, corporate dinner table, looking up to her awkwardly. 

"Okay. Sorry I'm back so late, but Brenda, like, totally messed up her ankle and we had to..." Mia goes quiet when once she sees her Mother's luggage and purses at the bottom of the stairs. She looks down, reppresing a frown, who was already demanding a place in her face. 

"Mia, sit down please." Her Father asks. She silently makes her way besides her brother, who is looking down at the table, his expression as empty as the rest of them. 

Her parents spend the next half hour explaining that Mom is gonna move out, and there are gonna be certain schedule changes once the divorce settlements are done with. Their family was falling apart, and their parents talked about it like it was a subject in a business meeting. In that same fashion, Max and Mia stoically exchange some words with their parents, asking a couple of questions and giving certain opinions on the situation. Not that it matters, once their parents make a decision, it is what it is, no turning back. 

They go upstairs, to Max's room. Mia sits on his bed, trying to start the process of understanding what just happened. Max stands in front of his mirror, watching himself, his fists starting to shake. 

"They were having issues, but... how could _this_ happen?" Mia asks perplexed.

And suddenly, a big shattering can be heard. The sound of glass exploding and falling to the ground. Mia looks up, only to find that his strong fist went through the mirror. 

"I'm bleeding." Max simply said. 

Mia exhaled, and stood up elegantly from the bed. 

"I'll go get the first aid kit. And call Marissa so she cleans up that mess." 

_A Warren isn't weak._

Max starts noticing that Mia is escaping various meals, and being super tired, and getting thiner and thiner as the weeks go by. She was also a lot more restraint. She didn't speak to him like she used to, and she even broke up with her boyfriend, and she didn't wanted to tell him why. Not that she was that invested in him, but still. 

But the day she collapsed, everything made sense. And Max felt like an absolute _idiot._ Her little sister was driving herself to an early grave and he didn't do anything to stop it. He knew that the divorce was more rough on her that she let on, but he didn't knew it would go this far. 

Except, that it wasn't everything. 

"I think... I think that I might..." She tried to say, being unable to look at him in the eye. 

"Mia, is okay... just talk to your brother, would you?" 

"Gay. I'm think... I'm gay." 

"Oh... really?" Max asked. The revelation coming to him as a shock. All though, does lady suits Mia has laying around in her closet should had been a clue. 

"Yes, really." Their Father says, entering the Hospital room. 

"You know?" Max asked, surprised as to how collected Mr Warren is. 

"Yes, she told your Mother earlier. But it's okay, we can use this. There's lots of news outlets that would love to make notes about athletes with your sister's... _preferences._ Once you're well Mia, we'll contact some of them so they can give you interviews." He informed her.

"Dad, I think is a little soon for Mia, maybe we should-" Max is interrupted by his sister. 

"Is okay Max. I'll do it. Like Dad says, we can _use_ this." Max stared at her in doubt, but she look sure. 

"That's my daughter." Mr Warren says, grinning. 

In truth, it is too soon for Mia, but she doesn't want to see the dissapoinment in her Father's eyes anymore. The dissapoinment hidden behind his grey eyes. Because she let herself be weak, let herself fall. 

_A Warren always comes up on top._

After that whole ordeal, Mia starts to change. She starts hanging out with those losers at Berry High, being more defiant with Dad, and focusing a lot of her energy in cheerleading, more so than before. Until one infamous day, she tells Dad that she isn't going to Hearts anymore, that she wants to go to Berry High. 

"The first Warren not to attend Hearts High... how dare you do this to me? To our family?" Dad asks, defiantly. 

"This is not about about our family, or you, or anyone else but me! I found people there, good, loyal people! Unlike those bimbos from Hearts." 

"What can those peasants give you that your girlfriends at Hearts can't?" 

"A real friendship. I had enough of playing pretend with them, with Mom, with _you._ I've been pretending all my life. I'm sick of it." 

"I knew since that day, at the Hospital, that you were going to dissapoint me one day. That you didn't had what it takes to be a part of this family, cracking under pressure like this, just like your Mother." 

Mr Warren was looking for blood, and he made it. Mia went upstairs, covering her face in shame. 

"You better not dissapoint me like this too, Maxwell. Stay in line with this family." 

Max had so much to say. 

'You don't love us! You love what you think we are. If you wanted brainless followers, you should had got dogs, not have children.' 

"Of course not that. There's no chance." Max said. 

_A Warren never steps out of line._


End file.
